LAKELAND, Fla. — J.A. Happ writes righthanded. He bowls and plays tennis with his right hand, kicks with his right foot. He plays golf, dribbles and shoots a basketball lefthanded. Either by happenstance or having the requisite gray matter to have acquired some higher learning at Northwestern, Happ throws lefthanded and has promising job prospects because of it.

"I don't know why," Happ said. "It's a weird thing. I would think I would at least kick with my left."

If it's that tough to figure out Happ from the inside, then outsiders have almost no chance. Happ has a sedate presence on the pitcher's mound — and most places really — that is contagious enough to regularly render hitters lethargic. He deadened the bats of the Detroit Tigers in his first outing of the Grapefruit League, working two scoreless innings in the Astros' 6-3 victory Wednesday.

"I try to stay collected out there, but I don't want people to mistake that for lack of intensity," Happ said. "The people who know me know I'm as competitive as they come. There's a lot of fire going on internally if it's not showing externally."

'The whole package'

Happ, 28, is the key player general manager Ed Wade got in return for sending franchise icon Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies last summer. Astros pitching coach Brad Arnsberg has no reservation touting Happ, who went 5-4 with a 3.75 earned run average in 13 starts after the trade, as "the whole package."

"He's almost got a little bit of a sleeper to him," Arnsberg said. "He's so monotone and nice and polite, but when he's on the mound, he's a different guy. I see him in bullpen activity just want to snap, and I like that, because he cares so much and wants to be so good and demands so much out of himself."

Happ has a 19-9 record (.679) and 3.27 earned run average to show for his first 289 innings in the major leagues. He has done it with a fastball-slider-changeup repertoire that neither turns heads nor short-circuits radar guns. His fastball regularly clocks in at just under 90 mph, but there is more to it and his other pitches than immediately meets the eye.

"His biggest asset is not only does he have good stuff, he's very deceptive when he throws," catcher Jason Castro said. "He's very, very hard to pick up. He hides the ball really well."

Though Happ made the All-Big Ten first team all three years he pitched at Northwestern and was a third-round draft choice in 2004, he quickly found himself cast as the other lefty in the Phillies' pecking order. While Cole Hamels was making an All-Star team or winning a World Series Most Valuable Player award, Happ was trying establish himself as a major leaguer.

Happ got a 32-inning audition at the end of 2008, posting a 3.69 ERA and making the postseason roster of a team that went on to win the World Series. He went 12-4 and ranked eighth in the National League in ERA (2.93) in 2009, finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting and helping the Phillies reach the Series again. The Phillies tended to look askance at his tendency to allow home runs (one every 8.3 innings) and a less-than-optimal ratio of strikeouts to walks (220 to 119).

"What we hope," Wade said, "is that we have the type of environment where we can take good pitchers who have had success in other places and take the next step."

Following familiar pattern

Wade points to the Philadelphia story of Brett Myers, who went from starter to closer and back to starter during a tumultuous 2002-2009 run with the Phillies. The Astros signed Myers (73-60, 4.40 ERA with the Phillies) before the 2010 season and handed him the ball every fifth day, no questions asked. Myers responded by tying his career-high in victories (14) and setting new standards in ERA (3.14) and innings (2232⁄3).

"In our setting, I think (Happ) clearly recognizes he's a big part of the rotation," Wade said. "He's going to get the ball every fifth day. We're not going to be living from start to start with his performance."

For the first time, Happ said, he has a sense of certainly about his place in the rotation. He can spend spring training preparing for the season rather than trying to impress.

"I hate using the word comfortable, because you don't ever want to feel that way," Happ said. "But it's nice to be counted on. There's some responsibility, and I like that. I like to be counted on, and I hope they see it that way."